York County teen is Maryland Gatorade runner of the year
Hellam Township's Dalton Hengst continued to add to what has already been a notable season of running at Maryland's McDonogh School on Monday morning.
Hengst, 17, was named Gatorade Maryland Boys' Cross Country Runner of the Year for 2016-17, Gatorade announced Monday.
The junior won his second consecutive MIAA Class A state championship this past season with a time of 15 minutes, 29.3 seconds. He finished 37.4 seconds ahead of the second-place runner. He led McDonogh to a fifth-place finish. He also won the Maryland & DC Private Schools Championships, and he finished the season undefeated against in-state competition. Hengst took fifth at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional championships and finished 21st at the national Foot Locker Cross Country National Championships.
"One of the things he found out when he got out there there, other runners had a goal to get to San Diego," McDonogh coach Jeff Sanborn said during a phone interview in December. "His goal was to run well once he got to San Diego, and he was able to beat three of the guys that beat him in New York (at the regional championships)."
The Gatorade award attempts to recognize "not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character," Gatorade noted in a press release. Hengst has volunteered on behalf of Meals on Wheels and as a youth running and soccer coach. He carries a B average at McDonogh, a five-day-a-week boarding school in Owings Mills, Maryland.
Hengst, who attended Eastern York schools through eighth grade, returns to his family's home on weekends, and he runs in York County year-round.